


But I'm With You

by Stratagem



Series: Voltron Space Family [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Lance is a pretend kraken, Pre-Voltron, super fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 15:38:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11717361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: Lance plays with his younger siblings, turns into a kraken in a kiddie pool, and is saved by his mother. Go Mama McClain!Soft fluffy family story. Basically Lance playing with his younger siblings.





	But I'm With You

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own VLD!
> 
> A/N: I wanted to write something cute and sweet about Lance and his family after going through a roller coaster of emotions with Season 3, so here it is. But yeah, this has absolutely nothing to do with Season 3 and is just pure pre-Voltron family fluff and pretty short. Also, Lance is 14 here, and his younger brother Theo is six while his baby sister Josie is three and currently uber shy.

Lazy summer days were cliché but oh so needed. Lance was sprawled in a lawn chair in the backyard, one ear bud in so he could listen to music while keeping an eye on Theo and Josie. Uncle Eterio had brought them a kiddie pool and a slip-n-slide the last time he had visited, and the youngest McClains were putting their new toys to good use. The entire morning had been taken up with the slip-n-slide, which Lance had made ten times better by getting out the dish soap and making it extra dangerous until Mama had reclaimed the soap.

Theo was monopolizing the slip-n-slide now that Lance had gotten tired of it, and he was trying to do some kind of trick where he slid on his knees then popped up into a fighting stance at the end. Grass covered him from head to toe since he kept sliding off the plastic and face-planting in the yard.

With one foot in the kiddie pool that Josie was sitting in, Lance would occasionally splash her, eliciting giggles. She had a few rubber ducks and a mermaid toy drifting around her as her own personal entourage, but her floaties kept twisting around and getting in the way when she reached for them. When she started to pull them off, Lance shook his head at her.

"Nope, keep them on."

"No, I don't want." She tugged at the right one, pulling it to her elbow.

"Keep them oooon." Reaching down, he shimmied the floatie back up. "Just in case." Josie's lower lip stuck out in a pout, at least until he bent down and splashed her. "No pouting in the pool."

Josie tried to keep sulking but she couldn't keep it up for long. She splashed him back a little then started quietly playing with her toys again, pushing one of the ducks around the water.

Lance nearly bolted out of his skin when someone let out a high-pitched squeal. In the pool, Josie actually jumped, and he heard Theo let out a curse that would have had him eating soap if their mom heard him say it.

"Oh my god, so so _so_ cute!"

Cheese nuggets, it was Clara.

Lance made a face as he glanced over his shoulder toward the house and found his brother Gavin's latest girlfriend walking out of the house. Grinning, she waved her fingers at him and proceeded to stalk toward the kiddie pool like a neon pink and purple leopard. That jumpsuit she was wearing was blinding.

Gavin was excellent at finding pretty girls but he totally sucked at figuring who had a good personality to match. Like his last girlfriend, Isabella, had been a complete 10 but she had been downright scary. Like licked steak knives after dinner, had a taxidermized squirrel named Tim in her car, and listened to rage-punk music psycho scary.

Clara, while not as standardly horrifying, was equally unlikable. Mainly because she was either wrapped around Gavin like an octopus or scream-laughing at weird things. Also, she terrorized Josie because she thought she was adorable and therefore wouldn't leave her alone. Lance couldn't forgive her for that. Gavin always said she was just overeager to get the family to like her, but she didn't seem to get that it took Josie time to warm up to anyone. Hell, the kid still hadn't spoken more than a few words to her preschool teacher, and she had been in the class for a few months now.

The moment she spotted Clara, Josie froze like a baby rabbit who saw a fox. She stared at Clara as if her worst nightmare had come to life, which she pretty much was.

"Hey, it's okay, Jo," Lance said, "You're okay."

"Lance, you are the best big brother ever, watching your baby brother and sister," Clara gushed as she walked over. "So sweet!"

Immediately, like a minor demon being summoned, Theo stomped over and gave Clara a harsh glare. "We're not babies. I'm six and Josie's three."

"Oh, you are so right, little man!" Clara beamed like she couldn't see death emanating from his eyes. "And you're just like a teeny tiny adult."

"It's sort of hot out here, don't you want to go back inside?" Lance said, trying to convince her to retreat before Theo tackled her. Theo happened to be Paz's favorite, and she had passed down many legendary finishing moves to her young protégé. If Clara didn't want to be on the receiving end of an Atomic Elbow Screwdriver to the stomach, she probably should refrain from calling him 'little man' ever again.

"No way, I love the heat," she bubbled, "Want me to take over? Gavin wanted to pop in for a visit with the gang, and I can watch the kidlets if you want go talk to him."

The gang? That meant Gavin had brought his roommates and probably a couple more people to raid the fridge. And kidlets…man, Lance would have been tempted if it was just Theo since Clara deserved his wrath, but he couldn't leave Josie in her clutches. However, he had to tread carefully here. If he was extra rude to Gavin's girlfriend, his eldest sibling would yell at him so much. And he'd tell Mama. Lance was way more worried about the lecture he would get from their mom than he was about dealing with Gavin.

"Josie-Wosie, come give me a hug!" Clara said as she crouched down next to the kiddie pool. "Ugh, you are the cutest thing ever."

Was she serious? _Josie-Wosie_? One of Lance's eyebrows shot up, driven by incredulity. In the pool, Josie stayed perfectly still, acting as if Clara couldn't see her if she didn't move.

"Uh, Clara, she doesn't really like that," he said, trying to spare his baby sister and the psycho's feelings at the same time.

"No, she loves me, Gavin said so."

Well that was a big whopping lie, good job, bro. "He did…"

"Yep." She extended her hands to Josie and made like she was going to grab her.

Josie looked up at Lance with big blue eyes that were on the verge of filling with tears, and he immediately reached for her. She sprang into his arms and clung to him like a barnacle.

"Aw, come on, Josie," Clara said, tilting her head to the side and not lowering her hands, "Let's go paint our nails and I can play with your hair."

Right, because that was going to win her over, messing with her tangled wet hair. Josie hid her face in Lance's shoulder, and he tightened his hold on her, hoping she knew he wasn't going to hand her over to Little Miss Crazypants. "I think she's tired, Clara." He grinned and decided to offer up a sacrifice. "Why don't you do Theo's nails instead?"

Theo's eyes lasered in on him and then flicked to Clara. "I hate nail polish."

"Theo!" a big baritone voice yelled from the house. Gavin was hanging on the doorframe, one of Mom's glass dishes in his hand. "You want any of this before I finish it off, buddy?"

"Is that the _boliche_?" Theo said, zeroing in on Gavin instead, "That's mine!"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna eat it…"

"Don't!" Theo scrambled up from the slip-n-slide and ran toward the house. "Get out and take your whacko girlfriend with you!"

Clara stood up and crossed her arms over her chest, shock on her face. "What did you call me?"

"A whacko!" Theo yelled over his shoulder before attacking Gavin's side, reaching for his favorite food while Gavin shouted at him for insulting Clara. The crazy girlfriend in question huffed and walked over, probably expecting to be defended. Most likely it would just devolve into a real fight over the _boliche_.

"She's gone," Lance said, and Josie lifted her head from his shoulder. Chuckling, he ran a hand over her dark-haired head. "You're going to have to learn to stick up for yourself, you know?"

"Nuh-uh." Josie climbed out of his lap to get back into the pool, stumbling a little on the edge.

"Yuh-huh," he replied, holding out his hand. She grabbed it and steadied herself before sitting down in the pool. "And you have to start talking to people."

"You talk to people."

"No, you have to talk to people, too. I won't always be able to tell people what you want," Lance said. He grabbed one of her rubber ducks and filled it with water before squirting her with it. "Capice?"

"Capoosh," she said, the glimmer in her clever eyes telling him that she knew exactly how to say it and had purposefully messed it up.

"Josie—"

She splashed at him, aiming for his face since she was obviously done with the conversation.

Lance rolled his eyes at her quiet stubbornness and then started making faces, contorting his mouth and bugging out his eyes. "Oh, no, don't splash! You'll awaken the kraken!"

"You're not kraken," she said, "You're Lance."

"That's because I haven't been splashed a lot," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "See, I only turn into the kraken when I get splashed too much."

Josie looked at him, eyes narrowing, and then she splashed him again. He leaned forward and made playful growling noises as she kept shoving water at him, then he fake-roared and launched himself into the pool, dousing her with a tidal wave. With a delighted smile, Josie giggled and kept splashing him as he faux-raged and knocked most of the water out of the pool. Finally, he dropped down into the water and went still.

"Lance?" Josie flopped down across his chest and poked at his mouth. "Laaaance?"

Letting out a sudden shout, he sat up and grabbed her as she tumbled, swooping her up and heading to the house. "The kraken is hungry! The kraken demands ice cream!"

"Me too!"

They had reached the patio when the kitchen door flew open and their mom stepped out, holding towels. "No, no, you're not coming into the house soaked again, _mijo_. I already had to get onto Theo."

"This not Lance, this is kraken," Josie said as Lance set her down on the patio. Mama immediately bent down and started drying her off.

Playing along, Lance grinned and then growled at his mom. "Krakens don't need towels, they take away our insanely awesome water powers."

"That so?" Mama said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

A second later, Lance's head was engulfed in a fluffy blue towel, and his mom was roughly drying his hair. "Mama! You're suffocating me!"

"Why Lance, you should be more grateful," she teased, nearly taking off his ears as she rubbed the towel over his head, "I'm saving my precious baby boy from a kraken curse, which means I'm definitely getting that mother of the year award." She pulled the towel back from his face and smiled at him. "Look, it's my long lost cursed son!" With a fake cry, she hugged him, her hand resting on the back of his head. "My poor child!"

"Mama, that's Lance," Josie said, tugging on their mom's skirt, as if worried that their mom didn't actually see it was him.

Mama leaned back, wiping away invisible tears. "After all this time, my dream has come true. You can finally come home and actually clean your room."

"Can I go back to being a kraken?"

Mama looped the towel over his neck and kissed his forehead. "Once your room is clean."


End file.
